Two year 6 classes from Bradway School spent a full day each at the CLC to animate the traditional Japanese stories they had been learning about in class. The students had also being studying Manga comics, and each group created some fantastic 2D characters, props and sets for the animations. They were the most ambitious characters I’ve seen at the CLC, with a huge number of moving parts, with different eyes, mouths and profiles. I was very impressed with how the students managed to keep track of all the bits and use them to full effect in their films.

Once again the difficulties of animating enough action to match the scripts came to the fore. The problem partially lies in recording the voice-over separately, rather than straight onto the animation, but this isn’t really practical. However I think that any problems like this teach the pupils a lot, and they hopefully will be very aware of the issue for future animations.

Here are some of my favourites from the sessions (I just love the Windy Bride story!):

The year 1 class from St Thomas of Canterbury attended the CLC in two halves this past couple of weeks in order to animate the stories they had been learning in lessons. The first half animated The Gruffalo, each group taking one or scenes to work on. These were all put together at the end with the voiceover recorded in class. We used the software Zu3D, as it is very easy to use and primary friendly, with the ability to add titles and audio to the animation without having to export it into another application. The pupils worked really hard to get the animations completed in a morning, although we had the common problem of struggling to have enough action to fit the voice-over. This is where one of the Zu3D features is particularly useful – the frame rate slider means you can quickly reduce the number of frames per second, in order to slow the film down.

The second half of the class animated a Funny Bones story which you can see below.

The Totley Primary Year 5s had a smashing time at the CLC yesterday, creating some eggcellent animations using painted hard-boiled eggs. Each group had written a story and built a set in a cardboard box for their egg characters. Unfortunately they only had a morning to complete their films, but they worked really hard and I was amazed at how much they got done – the finished films had titles and sound added, as you can see below. The biggest problem was getting the eggs to stand up, but they did make excellent characters for squishing.

Two year 3 classes from Carfield Primary School came to the CLC this term to animate their own short stories. Each group wrote a script, designed their set and brought toys and props to animate. They spent the morning using I Can Animate to create the animations, and the afternoon editing the films in Windows Movie Maker to add sound and titles.

The first class had developed some quite lengthy scripts and it soon became clear that their animations weren’t long enough to fit in all the speaking, so they had to cut out large parts. The second group therefore decided to create silent films, using only music and sound effects to enhance the action – unfortunately this meant the storyline was often unclear. The perfect balance is an action-driven story with very small amounts of narration/dialogue, and the use of titles to explain where necessary.

Three classes from Mundella School have visited the CLC this term to create some animations. Two classes animated part of the story of The Iron Man by Ted Hughes, using some fantastic hand painted sets and props.

The third class had been learning about explorers, and created animations set in the Antarctic based on Scott’s expedition to the South Pole, again with some beautifully painted backdrops and penguins.

Green Screen, also known as Blue Screen or Chroma Keying, is a technique in video whereby you film your subject in front of a green or blue background and remove the blue/green colour to reveal another image behind. Most people know it best from weather forecasts – the forecaster isn’t actually standing in front of a weather map at all. It is used heavily in films and television programs too – see this link for an amazing video showing the potential of the technique.

Expressing future plans and wishes (SEN pupils acting out “If I could be someone for a day, I’d be…”).

Students found it very motivating to use the green screen, as they could transport themselves anywhere they needed, for example play football at Bramall Lane, or play the guitar on stage at Wembley. We have found it particularly good for the students from the special schools we work with, as they can act out certain behaviours in a safe setting – for example crossing a road for a Green Cross Code video.

The Background

At the CLC we use a green screen (we decided on green as less people wear green than blue – anything the same colour as the background will also become transparent!) made up of a large green curtain on a curtain rail. You get best results with a very bright, vibrant green or blue colour, for example:

We also bought a Lastolite portable green screen with frame, which packs up small enough to take into schools. However, you don’t have to use a piece of cloth, it could be a wall painted blue or green with enough room for filming in front.

The Lighting and Other Considerations

You get the best results from an evenly lit background, as any difference in shade of colour will cause problems in the editing stage. If possible light the background and the subject separately, as this helps with crisp edges (and reduces the green halo effect). Try and avoid the subject casting shadows on the screen. Finally it is difficult to get a good result when there is a lot of movement; static scenes (e.g. news reports) work best.

The Editing

We use Adobe Premiere Pro to edit our green screen videos, but this is an expensive option for schools. There is a cheaper version, Adobe Premiere Elements, which costs around £60 for a single licence, and this still gives a good result:

Click on the Edit tab on the right and then Effects. Scroll down to find the Keying section and drag the Chroma Key effect to the green screen clip. (There is a specific Green Screen effect too, but the Chroma Key one is easier to tweak to get best result).

Click on Edit Effect and open the Chroma Key effect (click on triangle).

Click on the eyedropper icon then click on the preview screen to pick the most representative colour of the background (i.e. not too dark or light a shade).

Use the Similarity and Blend sliders to get rid of any remaining background colour. I generally aim for Similarity between 15-30%, and Blend <20%.

If there is a problem area in a corner (which never appears behind the subject), use the Eight-Point Garbage Matte effect. You can drag any of the 8 points to mask out areas you don’t want.

See below for a screen shot of Adobe Premiere Elements:

If you have access to a Mac, then iMovie has a Green Screen function:

Click on iMovie > Preferences in the top menu bar, and tick the box next to Show Advanced Tools.

Drag your background image or video onto the project area first.

Now drag your green screen clip on top of the background image. In the menu that appears, choose Green Screen.

The software does all the tricky stuff (like choosing the colour to remove) and gives a surprisingly good result.

It is possible to chroma key video in Windows Movie Maker – see how to do it here. However the end result isn’t great unless you have a very well lit background, without too much variation in colour.

Here is an example of a music video, created using the Green Screen by year 6 pupils:

Our CLC is hosting a TeachMeet on the 11th November, starting at 5.30pm. A TeachMeet is an informal conference for teachers, by teachers. Anyone who attends is welcome to give a presentation, relating to the use of technology in the classroom or for CPD. These presentations can be 2 minute nano presentations, or 7 minute micro presentations. This means that the evening moves at a good pace and planning a presentation isn’t too onerous. Above all the experience is supposed to be fun as well as informative.

This TeachMeet has an NQT focus, with the aim of inspiring newly qualified teachers (and trainee teachers) in the use of ICT and providing them with resources and ideas for use in their own practice. However all teachers and educationalists are welcome to attend, whether from the Primary, Secondary, Further of Special sector. The evening also provides the opportunity to network and socialise with other teachers, and consume free food and drink!

Currently there are presentations on the following subjects:

Joining a global staffroom for support and inspiration: Building your PLN

Putting the Interactive into IWBs

Using video in the music classroom

Multimedia Extravaganza in Y6

Using Microsoft Mouse Mischief to make PowerPoint presentations interactive – and fun

Organising your classroom for learning

If you are interested in attending/presenting you can sign up at www.teachmeet.org.uk (scroll down to find the Sheffield logo), or e-mail me, Catherine Elliott, at celliott@ssclc.net.

There is also a Page for the TeachMeet, which will contain links to some of the presentations and videos from the night. It can be found here.